last one is scheduled to roll out of the Boeing factory there later this year— this unique aircraft will continue to be the mainstay airlifter for the Air Force for many years. No new heavy-lift aircraft for the Air Force is on the horizon. “This is going to be our bread and butter for a long, long time,” says retired Air Force Col. Thomas Jackson, deputy director of the 62nd Maintenance Group at McChord. Jackson, who has been taking care of C-17s as a maintenance officer since he was a captain stationed at 28 Boeing Frontiers Charleston Air Force Base in 1995, recounts the journey the Boeing jet has made, from its introduction into the Air Force inventory in 1993 as a replacement for the aging C-141 Starlifter. The C-17 was first employed in a major contingency beginning in December 1995, when U.S. and allied nations deployed peacekeeping forces to Bosnia in support of Operation Joint Endeavor. Later, C-17s were widely used in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. And they have delivered hope and saved lives around the world on humanitarian missions, including the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and the Japanese tsunami in 2011. More recently, C-17s were used to carry supplies, equipment and troops in support of the U.S. military humanitarian missions to West Africa to help slow the spread of the Ebola virus. “It proved itself years ago, and continues to do so,” Jackson says, standing under the wing of one of the
Frontiers February 2015 Issue
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